The Heart of the Miko
by Annie Dolnar
Summary: A required reading for a High School Souta sheds some light on what happened to his sister after she made the decision to spend her life in the feudal era, and provides some closure for the Higurashi family.
1. Part 1

**NOTE: Originally, I had just gotten bored and written the contents in "Part 2" a very, very long time ago(maybe three or four years), and found it a few hours ago and decided to spruce it up and submit it here. I then started imagining this as something Souta would read in school, like some kind of required significant literature or historical reading, and this is what happened as a result.**

 **There are some things that obviously will appear strange; for instance, Souta scratches out parts of a name letter by letter at one point, but the Japanese would actually scratch out by "kanji" character. I tried to keep the name pieces which he removes consistent with what would be a Kanji character, but since I am an American and haven't taken Japanese, it may just look funny to those who know both languages.**

 **Read and Review; I appreciate constructive criticism. This is my first upload since 2008.**

* * *

Souta Higurashi, a High Schooler, was bored.

It was the same story every year; work, make good grades, repeat. It had been one year since his sister Kagome had run off to get married, and sometimes the house just seemed boring without having her to bicker with.

He looked down at his day planner. Homework on the first day of school? What a joke. But he remembered his sister, who worked very, very hard in school even before she became stuck in their time, even when she wanted to prepare for a future in which she didn't need any of the knowledge given.

"History book, story one, pages 15-20. Read and write a short essay naming and defending which Feudal Era legend you believe it describes. Three possibilities are given at the end of the reading, however you may choose to name another legend if you are aware of one which may fit the selection."

Souta opened the book. The first page contained a short description of the author, known only as Po Tsune.

"Po Tsune was one of the more revered artists and poets of the Japanese Feudal Era," he read aloud. "Po's early poetry often revolved around mythical demons and short epic battles, while his later work tended to center more around peace and the Buddhist idea of nirvana. Some works for whom the author is not determinable are thought to belong to Po due to the similar styling and topics, however there is not enough evidence to connect these writings to Po directly. Po is believed to have frequented the areas surrounding the Goshinboku Shrine, though there is evidence to show he probably did his studying in the North.

"This work is particularly vague and it is widely unknown which legend Po refers to. It is somewhat different to his other works, however, as it is an obituary speech written for people who we can assume are good friends to Po. The vague writing has often been speculated to be due to the many wars going on at the time, and the possibility that Po did not want any specific knowledge to fall into the wrong hands."

Souta had heard of Po Tsune before; their father had always admired his work, and even had one of his paintings, which, after his death, Kagome hung in her bedroom. It had since been moved to the living area, because his mother wanted to admire it as a memento to her only daughter. Souta looked up at this painting now, at the swirls of color depicting a bright half-moon shining from behind a tree that resembled Goshinboku. If Po had once frequented these shrines, perhaps it really WAS modeled after the sacred tree. He filed this thought away to share with his mother, and began to read Po's obituary speech to his friends.


	2. Part 2

_They were a good pair, who loved each other so. She came from far away, from a land where she was blessed enough to have everything she needed and more. He came from nowhere, wandered the earth alone for most of his early life, and had nothing but the clothes on his back. They met by accident, by fate. And so did we meet them, in that same way._

 _The more we traveled together, the more obvious it became that they had fallen in love. The pair were stubborn to the bone, but also inseparable. They could never stay away from each other for very long, even in disagreement; they would reunite and continue, putting trouble behind them, piece by piece. He followed her home many, many times, and she returned to his side even when she thought she could not._

 _The day we accomplished what we had been struggling to achieve, she went home… And did not return to us. He could not follow, for the path was blocked. Neither could she come back to him, though both wondered after each other. Both sat under the same tree, expanded across time, acting like a bridge, where they could meet in their hearts and feel the other's presence._

 _This carried on for a few years. For us, they were short, as we had found our lives and our world, and carried on. For them, they were long and agonizing. We watched him waiting, watching, hoping, every day. We watched him fight the possibility that she may never return._

 _One day, though, one very special day, he sensed her here. He ran, and we followed, and there she was. In the past, we knew, they had taken it for granted that they could see each other whenever they chose, they had held on to small grudges that on this day meant nothing. Every angry word, every mistaken assumption, every tear she had shed and every bit of dirt he had punched- all was forgiven, forgotten, and not allowed to darken their path any longer._

 _The years passed. They watched carefully over our families and protected us. He preferred to protect her at all costs, but she would do nothing less than fight at his side- or even to stand in front of him, to be his protector when he needed her to be. Comparably, where she came from, she had lived like a princess, but she never complained that their home was small, that they had no money, that they could not have children. She never complained that she could never visit the family she had left behind, though we knew they held a place in her heart. He treasured everything about her, every minute they spent together. She became a teacher for the younger villagers, and he often helped with work in the fields._

 _Because they were well known to be our protectors, two generations passed in our village before it was attacked. He and she were old now, but more agile than the rest of us. They fought well, as they always had, striving to protect our little village. It was because of them, in the end, that our village was saved, but at our great price._

 _Both he and she were severely weakened from this battle, and were blessed to be able to say our goodbyes, and to watch them say theirs. I have wondered, in my age, whether they chose to let go together at that moment. I think she could have healed over time, and I am certain that he could have. I have wondered whether they simply chose to go together so that they wouldn't have to spend another day apart._

 _We buried them side by side, near the tree that held their worlds together. They wished everything they owned to go to a young child in our village that we have since discovered to have a strange, powerful line, similar to his. They must have known, must have realized he was at risk of being an outcast. They entrusted to him the shrine they maintained, the small hut, and the small amount of land surrounding, on which they are buried._

 _Every new moon, we celebrate their lives, and send prayers and wishes to wherever they may be. It was only on the most recent new moon that the village brought in marble stones crafted just for each of them. There is a beautiful design of their tree's branches running over the stones in a way that looks as though the stones were originally carved while together, broken apart now but still connected by the tree, and on them are written their names and a few wise words each used to give. Their story will live on forever, and even so, it will live on with us. And their love will live on forever, beyond even the end of time._


	3. Part 3

Souta paused at the ending sentence and reread it, more to comfort himself than for any other reason. _And their love will live on forever, beyond even the end of time._ He had realized by the third paragraph exactly which "legend" that this story best matched to. He tried to remember the names of Kagome's friends in that time. Miroku the lecher, Sango the demon slayer, Shippo the Kitsune, Kirara the kitten/tiger.

Suddenly, it came to him. He wrote down "Shippo the Kitsune" in the margins next to the author's description, and then crossed out the letters- "S-H-I-P, T-H-E, K-I". Po Tsune was left.

He looked up at the painting again, feeling overwhelmed. Kagome had often taken crayons and colored pencils to that world for Shippo to use to draw and color. Had she somehow inspired the person who turned out to be her favorite artist? Their grandfather had boasted that the painting had been passed down in the family for generations(as he always did). He stood up and walked to it, studying it intently.

It was about then that his mother walked in with groceries.

"Mother," he chastised, "don't carry so many groceries all at once. Hand some over to me; I'll help you put them away."

"I'm alright, Souta, but thank you," she responded, moving by him with courtesy. "I see you've been admiring The Heart of the Miko."

Souta froze.

"Is that what this painting is called…" he whispered quietly, mostly to himself.

"I'm not surprised your sister liked that painting so much," his mother said fondly. "It was fate, I think. Everything that happened."

"It was painted for her," Souta realized.

"It certainly seems that way, doesn't it?"

"No… Mother, it was painted for her. Po Tsune painted it for her, or maybe in her honor."

Mrs. Higurashi smiled sadly.

"Souta, I miss Kagome very much, but I don't think we should make up fanciful stories like that about her."

"No, mother- let me show you what I found."

And he did- from the note about the author, to the name, to the obituary speech.

"So Shippo-chan became an artist," she mused. Suddenly, though, she froze.

"The grave stones," she whispered. "I know where they are."


	4. Part 4

The following New Moon, Souta and his mother and grandfather made their way to the small, shady grave site, which they had all three been clearing up ever since Souta and his mother made their first trek down the path to see it and had been found there, hugging and crying an hour later, by Grandpa.

As it turned out, it had been a lost idea that the stones here were grave stones, for it had been maintained more like a garden. The past few generations assumed it was a small garden with decorative stones half-buried in the ground. Even Souta's mother had assumed they were some kind of inspirational quotes from famous people that their ancestors had admired and decided to use as decorative statues; she and his father had in fact named Kagome before stumbling upon the stones on one of their walks, and had thought it was an interesting coincidence.

Souta, in his essay, later connected his required reading to the Shikon no Tama legend and some of Po Tsune's "unattributable" writings on the legend, which focused more closely on a Hanyou, Miko, Monk, Demon Slayer, and Kitsune. He made the highest grade in his entire class, due to his narrative-style "added speculations" of who and how the people of the legend could have behaved.

After they had cleared away much of the overgrowth, four other stones were also visible in this small garden area; four other people who had made an impression upon the lives of so many others. One held the name of the Higurashi's earliest known ancestor, the very same person to whom Kagome and InuYasha had left the shrine. The other three belonged to Kagome and InuYasha's friends, who must have requested to be buried in the same area: Sango, Miroku, and Shippo- whose grave was very clearly the youngest and was labeled "Shippo Tsune".

Once they had cleaned InuYasha and Kagome's stones, the intricate artwork was visible once more, as were the "wise words" that the villagers had chosen to remember the couple by.

* * *

 _"Life goes on, whether you do or not._

 _You might as well keep going, too._

 _You got two legs and a heartbeat-_

 _What's stopping you?"_

 **Hanyou InuYasha**

 _"Wherever you are, whatever comes your way,_

 _Never ignore the ones who need you,_

 _And never stop fighting for the ones you love."_

 **Miko Kagome**


End file.
